Mental health; Mental well-being; Well-being; Adolescent; Adolescence; Trends; Schoolwork pressure; Life satisfaction; Psychosomatic health complaints; Country variation; Cross-national; Multilevel analysis; HBSC
Abstract :
[en] Purpose: Previous research has shown inconsistent time trends in adolescent mental well-being,
but potential underlying mechanisms for such trends are yet to be examined. This study investigates
cross-national time trends in adolescent mental well-being (psychosomatic health
complaints and life satisfaction) in mainly European countries and the extent to which time trends
in schoolwork pressure explain these trends.
Methods: Data from 915,054 adolescents from 36 countries (50.8% girls; meanage ¼ 13.54; standard
deviationage ¼ 1.63) across five Health Behaviour in School-aged Children surveys (2002,
2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018) were included in the analyses. Hierarchical multilevel models estimated
cross-national trends in adolescent mental well-being and schoolwork pressure. We also
tested whether schoolwork pressure could explain these trends in mental well-being.
Results: A small linear increase over time in psychosomatic complaints and schoolwork pressure
was found. No change in life satisfaction emerged. Furthermore, there was large cross-country
variation in the prevalence of, and trends over time in, adolescent mental well-being and schoolwork pressure. Overall, declines in well-being and increases in schoolwork pressure were
apparent in the higher income countries. Across countries, the small increase in schoolwork
pressure over time partly explained the decline in psychosomatic health complaints.
Conclusions: Our findings do not provide evidence for substantial declines in mental well-being
among adolescents. Yet, the small declines in mental well-being and increases in schoolwork
pressure appear to be quite consistent across high-income countries. This calls for the attention of
public health professionals and policy-makers. Country differences in trends in both adolescent
mental well-being outcomes and schoolwork pressure were considerable, which requires caution
regarding the cross-national generalization of national trends.
Disciplines :
Public health, health care sciences & services
Author, co-author :
Cosma, Alina
Stevens, Gonneke
Martin, Gina
Duinhof, Elisa L
Walsh, Sophie D
Garcia-Moya, Irene
Kolto, Andras
Gobina, Inese
Canale, Natale
CATUNDA, Carolina ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Social Sciences (DSOC)
Inchley, Jo
de Looze, Margaretha
External co-authors :
yes
Language :
English
Title :
Cross-National Time Trends in Adolescent Mental Well-Being From 2002 to 2018 and the Explanatory Role of Schoolwork Pressure
